Art Monsters : Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art

by Elkin, Lauren

Theory of art

Published 18/04/2024 by Vintage Publishing (Vintage) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 368 pages

'Destined to become a new classic' Chris KrausA dazzlingly original reassessment of women's stories, bodies and art - and how we think about them.

For decades, feminist artists have confronted the problem of how to tell the truth about their experiences as bodies. Queer bodies, sick bodies, racialised bodies, female bodies, what is their language, what are the materials we need to transcribe it?Exploring the ways in which feminist artists have taken up this challenge, Art Monsters is a landmark intervention in how we think about art and the body. Weaving daring links between disparate artists and writers – from Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography to Kara Walker’s silhouettes, Vanessa Bell’s portraits to Eva Hesse’s rope sculptures – Lauren Elkin shows that their work offers a potent celebration of beauty and excess, sentiment and touch, the personal and the political.

‘The Susan Sontag of her generation’ Deborah Levy